Amy Hunt wins unprecedented fourth gold on European Championships last day
World silver 200m medallist Amy Hunt sealed an unprecedented quadruple on a six-medal final day for Great Britain at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
Hunt became the first athlete to win four gold medals at a single European championships after Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith, Zharnel Hughes and Hunt triumphed in the mixed 4x100m relay at the Alexander Stadium.
Asher-Smith also moved to the outright top of the European Athletics Championships all-time list with her 11th medal, and silver for Matt Hudson-Smith in the men’s 4x400m relay, bringing the hometown hero to nine, made him the outright most-decorated man in the history of the European Championships.
Georgia Hunter Bell won 1500m gold, there was a pair of silvers in the women’s 4x400m relay and for Jazmin Sawyers in the long jump, and Abbie Donnelly became the first British woman to win a marathon medal at the European Championships, with bronze.
The mixed 4×100 relay made its European Championships debut in Birmingham, opening the possibility for the ambitious Hunt to set her sights on four titles on home soil.
“Oh my gosh, I’m over the moon,” Hunt told the BBC. “And I think to finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport, me and Jeremiah actually have the same birthday so we’re kind of twins.
“To do it all together is incredible, especially because that was the first time we kind of did that changeover about an hour ago in warm-up.
“First time ever – and look how smooth it was. Such professionals. It was a bit like, you know when you’re queuing for a rollercoaster and you’re like a little bit nervous and you’re seeing the drops and stuff, and then when you get off you want to do it again? It was that adrenaline kick certainly. I loved the event.”
Hunt, the 2025 world 200m silver medallist, wrapped up the sprint double before winning gold with the women’s 4x100m relay quartet on Saturday night, then the mixed team beat Germany and Spain in 39.97 seconds.
Asher-Smith joined Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska on 10 European medals with women’s 4×100 relay triumph on Saturday after also collecting 200m bronze earlier in the week, although she already had two more golds to her name.
With Sunday’s addition, the British record-holder is now up to eight European golds, and is the lone athlete with 11 medals overall.
Hunter Bell, the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist at 1500m and Tokyo 2025 world silver medallist at 800m, beat Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska and Patricia Silva of Portugal to seal the third senior title of her career in four minutes, 7.78s.
Charlie Dobson nearly staged a final-leg comeback, but the British quartet of Hudson-Smith, Toby Harries, Ben Jeffries and Dobson finished three one hundredths of a second behind Italy in the competition’s closing race.
There was also silver for their counterparts, Yemi Mary-John, Lina Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin and Emily Newnham in three minutes, 21.68s, as well as long jumper Sawyers, with a best-effort 6.99m.
Donnelly took home marathon bronze in two hours, 27 minutes and 33 seconds.
